Tucson Police

On May 17, 2012, Officers from Operations Division Midtown responded to the former Deanza Drive Inn Theatre located at 1401 S. Alvernon in reference to a call of found bones by construction workers. Skeletal remains were unearthed while construction work was being done on the property. Homicide Detectives and personnel from the Pima County Medical Examiners Office responded to the scene to recover the bones.

Forensic examination of the remains conducted by the Office of the Medical Examiner determined the manner of death to be a homicide. The examination revealed the remains to be that of an unidentified white male, 45 to 60-years of age.

The male was approximately 5’7” tall with red hair and possibly a red beard. It is believed that the bones were at this location for several years.

Today, personnel from the Office of the Medical Examiner notified Homicide Unit detectives from the Tucson Police Department that a records search of DNA recovered from the skeletal remains indicated that they belonged to an individual, who was identified as Christopher Mazzarella. Mazzarella would have been 51 years old today. Next of kin have been notified. The manner in which Mazzarella died remains under investigation. The detectives request that anyone having information about Mazzarella and/or the circumstances that resulted in his death please call 911 or 88-Crime.